


Warmonger

by HalfmoonHeart



Category: Hellboy - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Multi, Other, bite me
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-29
Updated: 2019-01-31
Packaged: 2019-10-18 14:05:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,534
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17582318
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HalfmoonHeart/pseuds/HalfmoonHeart
Summary: Daughter of a disgraced Faer king, Radais needs to find herself before her father does. Who better to help than a rag-tag team and an overzealous monster?





	1. Chapter 1

The early evening sun cast long, lazy shadows across the backyard. Cold was seeping through the wool of Radais’ blue sweater, so she hugged herself tightly. Bats were awake, flitting about after the last of the fall mosquitoes. Soon, they’d retreat to their covens to hibernate. Radais wished she could join them, slumber through the winter without worries. She watched them for a while, trying to swallow her anxiety. Her throat burned.

“Dinner’s ready!” called a voice from the back door. Radais heaved a sigh, a hot rock of dread settling into her stomach. Slowly she rolled to her feet, dusting grass from her back. If she fussed with her sweater a bit, she could put off dinner for longer. But the voice called again, insistent. Radais trudged across the small yard and up the small steps, kicking her tennis shoes off just inside the door. A cat hopped down from somewhere, announcing her arrival with a few shrill meows.

After she poured a little bit of kibble into his shallow dish, Radais went into the kitchen, where Ma was scooping spaghetti into a pair of bowls. The little table was already set with silverware and big glasses of tea. There was an unsettling nostalgia about it, as if Radais was ten years old every time she walked into the kitchen. The dull silver, the chipped glasses, the tabletop stained with water marks, all of it a hallmark of a childhood stretched too thin. It made Radais’ joints hurt.

“Wow, looks good,” Radais lied as she took both bowls from Ma’s small hands, setting them gently at the table. Ma set her pasta scoop in the sink and rinsed it off, then joined her to eat. They were silent for a little bit, pretending to be absorbed in the pasta. Every time Radais tried to speak, her thoughts slipped away. Fear addled her. 

Radais and her mother had never had a perfect relationship. Father had tried to teach her that family was everything, but that lesson was straining against her own experience. Every time Ma looked into Radais’ golden eyes, she quickly had to hide tears. Even after all this time. It hadn’t taken long for Radais to figure out that it wasn’t the bond of family, but the bond of obligation, keeping her and Ma together.

“I’m moving,” Radais said, taking a big drink of tea. She tried to hide her eyes behind the ice cubes. She didn’t want to see the emotions that flitted across her mother’s face.

“You’re what?!” Ma was incredulous.

“Moving,” she replied simply, her voice infinitely more confident than she felt, “Don’t you think it’s time for me to start…” She faltered. Ma’s expression was full of puffed-up anger and betrayal.

“Your father told you-”

“Father left nearly fifteen years ago. What am I supposed to do? Keep living like a princess in a tower? I have to go and do something with my life!” Radais surprised herself and shut her mouth, eyes on the edge of her spaghetti bowl. She’d never risen her voice at Ma before.

A moment of silence passed. Ma heaved a sigh.

“You’re not–”

“I am.” She cut her off firmly, dropping her fork into the remains of her spaghetti. She shoved her chair out and left the room, and surprisingly, Ma didn’t try to stop her.

After tempering her door-slam into a hard shut, Radais huffed and puffed for a moment, eyes fixed out the window. They caught the lamp light, reflecting orange in the windowpane. Another reminder of her father. Another reminder of everything she tried to forget. She sat on the edge of her bed, cradling her head in her hands.

For a long time, thoughts of leaving had been swelling in her mind, pushing everything else away. Radais had to get out of this house, away from the old tomes and the dreamcatchers and the paintings. Away from Ma, who somehow carried on a normal mortal life, a sharp reminder of everything Radais couldn’t have. Away from the memory of Father, the king of nothing, the plague of her past. Away from the dull ache that seemed to pulse from the very being of the house.

When Radais stood up, she did so with a great deal of resolve. The combination of resentment and guilt bubbling in her stomach only spurred her onward. She shrugged a sweatshirt over her head, and grabbed her bag. Ma was doing the dishes when she walked through the kitchen to the back door. She didn’t glance up. Radais stuffed her feet quickly into her tennis shoes and was out the door. She wasn’t sure where she was driving off to, but she just drove. She’d figure it out when she got there.


	2. Chapter 2

Night had seeped into the sky, taking all the pretty colours of evening and smearing them into a dark wash. A few stars, low on the horizon, led Radais down familiar roads. The hum of the engine lulled her, soothing her boiling blood and churning guts. It was as if leaving behind the house had lifted her heart. Proof that she needed a more permanent solution.

She’d driven past familiar roads, up through town and out the other side, where the highway was long and straight and empty. It sloped down, carrying her from the sandy forests to the harbour. The full moon was hanging just above the sea. Radais halted the car near the marina. This was a place she would love to live, where the air was thick with salt and rot.

This place was moderately familiar. Ma had brought her here on vacation to catch a ferry, but she knew from Father that this place was home to selkies. He had brought her here also, to thrill her with the sight of several black seals shedding their skins to reveal human forms. They had bowed to Father.

Radais shook her head, ridding herself of the memory. She wasn’t here for nostalgia. She was here for…After a second thought, she realized she didn’t have a reason to be here. She just was. And maybe that would have to be a good enough reason.

The concrete boat ramp was edged by a little platform, where two benches stood sentinel over the water. Their surfaces were rough, a combination of old exposed wood and chipping latex paint. Radais sat for a while, letting her mind wander, letting herself take in the smells of the sea. There was a wild type of freedom here, as if real life didn’t exist. She would never get hungry or tired or cold here, would never need the voice of another to soothe her, would never yearn for knowledge or entertainment. Radais felt she could become immortal in this place, feeding only off the moonlight and the salt.

Her self-reverie was interrupted by her curiosity. Beyond where the ships were moored something was moving in the water, a dark shape only noticeable because Radais’ eyes were too keen for comfort. For a moment, she thought it was a selkie, and excitement rose in her chest. But the way it moved was all wrong, and it wasn’t the right shape. The water seemed to move through it, not around it.

Radais spurred herself up and across the boat ramp, picking her way across the creaking docks. Ahead, a jetty stuck out into the water, its surface slick with seafoam and algae. But it was the only place she could go to get far enough away from the shore. Weighing her options quickly, Radais decided to kick off her shoes and walked out onto the rock barefoot. Her toes spread across the rough stone, helping her keep her balance. 

Once she was out past the edge of the boats, she began searching again, hoping she hadn’t scared whatever it was away. She realized that her heart was beating hard in her ears, adrenaline making her hands and knees tremble. The dank ocean wind gusted, teasing her with the knowledge that it could toss her into the sea without notice.

After what felt like an eternity, she caught a glimpse of the shape moving. It had dipped closer to the boats and was heading in the direction of the jetty. She wondered if it had spotted her, standing out on the rocks like an idiot. It must have, because it abruptly changed course, heading back out to sea. She called out, forgetting herself and taking a running step toward the end of the jetty. The rocks were sharp and slick. As her foot landed, the sick pain of skin being sliced open radiated up into the pit of her stomach. Radais twisted to correct her momentum, but the wind and the slick rocks betrayed her. She fell.

Before she knew what was happening, the icy water was over her head. She fought the urge to scream, trying to save what little breath she had. Impotently, she thrashed, trying to find purchase on the jetty. Radais managed to get her head above water for a split second, but just as she opened her mouth to breathe, the ocean shifted again and all she got was a lungful of seawater.


End file.
